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Speakers stress to address public issues in South AsiaSpeakers stress to address public issues in South Asia

LAHORE: (Wednesday, January 17, 2018): Renowned political and social scientists at international conference have called upon the governments of South Asian countries to resolve mutual issues, enhance economic cooperation and focus on serving their nations who were living in poor human conditions. They were addressing the inaugural ceremony of two day international conference on “Changing Regional Political Dynamics in South Asia” organized by Punjab University Centre for South Asian Studies and Department of Political Science here on Monday.

PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zakria Zakir, former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed Khan, renowned political analyst Prof Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, Dean Faculty of Arts and Humanities Prof Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, distinguished participants from different countries and a large number of students were present on the occasion. In his statement, Prof Dr Zakria Zakir said that the poor nations of South Asian countries were facing serious problems like poverty, lack of basic health and education facilities etc. He said that the people were struggling to survive in poor living standards and it was difficult for majority of them to make both ends meet. He said that there were social injustices in our societies and we must give priority to resolving social issues. In his address, Mr Shamshad Ahmed Khan said that the world was facing challenges of diplomacy mixed with brute force, power struggle, invasion in the name of self-defense and religion based culture of extremism and terrorism. He said that Pakistan wanted to resolve issues with India through dialogue but India was not willing to extend cooperation. He said that India had practically made SAARC dysfunctional, which is a great loss for enhancing regional cooperation. He said that we must do the things which were in our interest. He said that we must turn our geopolitical situation into an asset rather than liability. He said that Pakistan had facilitated establishment of peace in Afghanistan but baseless allegations were being leveled against our country. Prof Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi said that the victory of allied forces in Afghanistan was becoming impossible. He said that Russia was strengthening ties with the countries in the region. He said that India had forgotten to solve issues like poverty and moving towards conflict. He said that human welfare had been ignored and there was imbalance of power and wealth in South Asia. He said that the governments must focus on developing human resource as our professionals had performed excellent at international level. He said that unless we understand the concept of shared regional security, we could not promote regional cooperation. He said that there must be strong diplomacy, economic cooperation, internal stability and continuity of policies in the region. He said that South Asian countries must make efforts for elimination of extremism and terrorism. He said that we must turn changing political dynamics in South Asian countries into opportunity and we must head towards economic autonomy. Dr Iqbal Chawla said that the Muslims of the region were no more slave and we must stand for our rights. He said that Pakistan and India must focus on reducing miseries of their people. Prof Dr Umbreen Javed said that the conference would provide an opportunity to interact with international scholars and share ideas and experiences as well as enhance people to people contact.